As my readers know, it is no exaggeration whatsoever to say that I subscribe to THEMIS, a subscription-only monthly magazine, solely to read Masayuki Takayama’s essays.
This essay, too, shows that he is not only the one and only journalist in the postwar world but also, if revealing truths that lie hidden and truths that have been concealed is the foremost reason for an artist’s existence, the writer most deserving of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
It was only from 2014 onward that I became aware of his presence in this capacity in Japan’s world of journalism and letters, after I learned the true nature of the Asahi Shimbun, which I had subscribed to for many years, and immediately canceled my subscription out of profound anger and regret at having continued reading that newspaper for so long.
Ever since, I have continued introducing his essays almost daily as essential reading not only for the Japanese people but for people throughout the world.
I have deliberately continued introducing him as the one and only journalist in the postwar world, using “one and only” as a descriptive phrase—a phrase that was scarcely used at the time.
In my English translations, too, I chose “one and only.”
However, both Google Translate, which I was using at the time, and DeepL, which I began using later, invariably changed my “one and only” into another expression.
Each time, I rejected the change and insisted on my own translation.
Eventually, my “one and only” began appearing in American reporting on MLB.
Now, as though a dam has burst, the mass media and individuals…particularly athletes who have reached the highest level…have all begun using “one and only.”
Those who have been reading me since I first appeared know that it is an undeniable fact that I am the one who popularized this expression.
They also know that, from June 1, 2011, to this day, I have been subjected to persistent interference with searches by a certain criminal, and that the search results pages for my “The Turntable of Civilization” have been vandalized to an unbelievable extent.
And that the effects continue even now.
They also know that, concerning the incident on September 11 in which my X account was suspended following a so-called malicious report, I filed a criminal complaint with the police station having jurisdiction for the first time in fourteen years, and that it was accepted.
That shortly after I first appeared on July 16, 2010, an extraordinary storm of followers arrived from around the world.
It is also an undeniable fact that, in the “site power” rankings being measured at the time, this site ranked thirty-fourth in the world.
The following is from Masayuki Takayama’s regular column in the issue of the monthly magazine THEMIS that arrived at my home on November 1.
This essay, too, proves that he is the one and only figure of his kind in the postwar world.
It is essential reading not only for the Japanese people but for people throughout the world.
There are many of Takayama’s essays that I deliberately publish repeatedly.
Why is that?
As Tadao Umesao said, originality is repetition.
Repeating something is itself originality—a truth discerned by genuine insight.
Whenever I think about this, I invariably think of the way truly first-rate—no, superlative—athletes of the caliber of Ohtani and Ichiro all perform the same routine every time they step up to the plate, take the mound, or, in the case of golfers, hit a tee shot.
Therein lies the very essence of the proposition that originality is repetition—or so I “transcend.”
“Japan Is a New Militarist State,” Lies China, Devoid of Good Sense
“Drunken Lout,” “Molester,” and “Villain” Originated in References to Han People Who Behaved Outrageously
This continues the essay by Masayuki Takayama.
Masayuki Takayama, the “One and Only”—My Reflections on Originality and Repetition, with His Column in THEMIS | The Turntable of Civilization
Professor Takashi Suyama of Nagasaki University wrote about how the Tuoba of the Xianbei viewed the Han people when they were gaining power.
Forty Million Starved to Death in the Great Leap Forward
“When someone became drunk and made a disturbance or behaved outrageously, people would say, ‘Just like a Han person,’” and from this arose the terms “suikan” (drunken lout), “chikan” (molester), and “akkan” (villain), he wrote.
The Tuoba subsequently gave rise to the unified state of Sui, and Emperor Yang accomplished the great feat of constructing the Grand Canal linking the Yellow River and the Yangtze.
Tang, which succeeded Sui, also produced a brilliant multinational culture.
Wang Wei, Li Bai, and Bai Juyi, representative poets of the Tang era, were all outsiders, and their poetry possesses color and extraordinary grandeur.
Incidentally, there is an expression, “Tuoba state.”
It means that capable Han officials supported rulers of other ethnic origins, producing good government.
Apparently, the intention is to say that the Chinese were good partners, but this, too, is a distortion of history.
Incidentally, Emperor Yang, who accomplished that great feat, is now regarded as an utterly wicked emperor, while Emperor Taizong of Tang is maligned for having placed all of Wang Xizhi’s calligraphy in his tomb.
Somewhere in their hearts, the Chinese disparage emperors who are outsiders—“guest emperors.”
Their jealousy is intense.
After Tang came the rule of Genghis Khan’s Yuan, and then, for the first time in fifteen hundred years, a Chinese dynasty, Ming, emerged, but its reputation was worse than Han’s.
When Ming collapsed and the Manchus, who would form the Qing dynasty, entered Beijing, the citizens are said to have welcomed them with cheers.
And unfortunately, now a Chinese-ruled Chinese Communist regime has once again come into being.
How terrible is it?
First, forty million people starved to death in the Great Leap Forward, whose slogan was “Surpass Britain and catch up with America in national strength”; along the way, 1.1 billion sparrows were also killed because Mao Zedong declared them harmful birds.
In the Cultural Revolution, which Mao Zedong launched out of fear of Liu Shaoqi’s popularity, several thousand people were boiled alive, and thirty million were killed in total.
More recently, twenty thousand students were killed at Tiananmen, but in the history of the Chinese Communist regime, this is merely one insignificant incident.
And now, once again, Mongols, Uyghurs, and Tibetans are being killed and raped at will, and their cultures and languages are being destroyed.
If it were merely that “the Chinese are liars and skilled at stealing, but lack creativity,” that would be bad enough.
The UN General Assembly Decided on Deletion, but…
In fact, they also lack the good sense to restrain that madness.
Xi Jinping, the supreme leader of those Chinese, was sternly rebuked over “the appalling conditions in Xinjiang and Tibet” at his first meeting with the newly inaugurated Prime Minister Takaichi and, it is said, was left speechless and wet himself.
Since then, Wang Yi and Xi Jinping’s other sycophants have intensified their criticism of Takaichi at every opportunity.
Just recently, too, when Prime Minister Takaichi called for the deletion of the enemy state clauses remaining in the UN Charter, China’s Foreign Ministry declared that they would not be deleted and could be invoked at any time.
These clauses say that if former enemy states such as Japan and Germany show suspicious signs, they may be attacked at any time without prior permission.
And China asserts that Japan currently meets the necessary and sufficient conditions because it is “expanding its armaments and pursuing new militarism.”
The UN General Assembly has decided that these clauses should be deleted, yet China ignores even that.
The Chinese intend to use even their lack of good sense as a weapon.